Was wondering this myself, even a dedicated external site would be nice, at the moment they seem to be scattered throughout the forums. Maybe add a new area or two with WIP and Released mods separated? Not only will it keep mods organized in a location dedicated to them, it might show people they even exist.

Great that there's now a section for mods, it's cluttered as hell being that it's a jumble of everything from requests to released mods, but at least it's something.

Generally speaking, I've always hated Steam Workshop, and I've avoided it whenever possible. I prefer being able to manage mods manually to more easily detect and resolve conflicts when necessary and just generally have more freedom in mod control. It's handy for those who find it simple and easy and to get people started with mods but otherwise just a pain to deal with, there are exceptions where it's worked well like Space Engineers, but that's only because mods are decided on a per-world/save basis.

Basically what I'm saying is, if it's done well, then good; if it's restrictive or just the bare bones of SW integration, like what many games have done, I'll be avoiding it at all costs even if it involves missing out on some of the better mods.